City of Raleigh to save commuters an estimated $9.7 million with digital twins and Microsoft Azure

One of the United States’s fastest-growing cities, the City of Raleigh prioritizes alleviating traffic congestion. To evaluate how traffic moves through intersections, the city traditionally relied on manual monitoring, a time-consuming, costly process.

The city migrated video feeds from 12 traffic cameras to Microsoft Azure and used software from NVIDIA and Esri to analyze traffic patterns and create real-time digital twins. The city moved from concept to pilot in just six weeks.

The City of Raleigh expects to save commuters $9.7 million in time and travel costs by improving traffic flow with insights from the digital twins. City employees are finding new opportunities to apply the technology to enhance or expand services.

“In 2025, we had an opportunity to partner with Microsoft, NVIDIA and Esri to integrate our data into a digital twin, which creates a virtual environment of our city where we can visualize and potentially analyze scenarios.”

James Alberque, GIS and Emerging Technology Manager, City of Raleigh

A North Carolina bustling metropolis, the City of Raleigh is reshaping government services for its more than 500,000 residents and 19 million annual visitors. To help alleviate traffic congestion, the city collaborated with Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Esri to apply AI technology to video feeds and create real-time digital twins. The City of Raleigh expects to save commuters $9.7 million in time and travel costs by optimizing timing patterns at one of its busiest corridors while exploring additional ways to harness AI.

Alleviating traffic concerns for half a million residents

Raleigh has been one of the fastest-growing US cities for over two decades. To keep pace, city employees are harnessing cutting-edge technology to improve services. “The city organization is very supportive of leveraging technology to solve our population challenges in new ways,” says James Alberque, GIS (Geographic Information System) and Emerging Technology Manager at City of Raleigh.

The city’s approach to traffic management and safety has evolved along with technology. Traffic engineers traditionally relied on time-consuming and costly manual monitoring to analyze traffic patterns. From 2022 to 2025, the city improved its data gathering but was eager to build on that success.

“In 2025, we had an opportunity to partner with Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Esri to integrate our data into a digital twin, which creates a virtual environment of our city where we can visualize and potentially analyze scenarios,” says Alberque.

Creating a living digital twin in just six weeks

The City of Raleigh adopted an ambitious timeline to develop real-time digital twins in just six weeks for the annual Smart City Expo in Spain. The city’s existing infrastructure in Microsoft Azure provided a secure and scalable foundation as it migrated video feeds from 12 traffic cameras to the cloud. To analyze video and highlight anomalies, the City of Raleigh uses NVIDIA services DeepStream and Metropolis.

Combining these capabilities with Esri’s ArcGIS software in Azure helps the City of Raleigh create a real-time digital twin of the city’s traffic. “The combination of data from Microsoft and NVIDIA makes it a living digital twin that consumes raw information and feeds it to decision-makers in real time,” says Christopher Thomas, Director of Government Marketing at Esri.

“It’s been a journey, but the City’s Chief Information Officer Mark Wittenburg is providing real outcomes and impact to not only the government employees but also the residents.”

Alex Pazos, Business Development Lead, Global Public Sector, NVIDIA

This new application gives City of Raleigh transportation engineers around-the-clock visibility into 12 busy intersections, laying the foundation for advanced analysis of traffic patterns and safety improvements. The city’s Azure-based infrastructure will scale seamlessly as more cameras are added to the solution.

Modifying traffic patterns to save commuters $9.7 million

With traffic, even small changes can create great benefits. The City of Raleigh estimates that it can potentially save commuters $9.7 million by reducing the delay in a series of 10 traffic signals in one of its busiest corridors by 4.5 seconds per signal. Improved traffic flow means commuters spend less time and fuel moving through the city. With AI-generated insights and a digital twin that updates in real time, the city’s two transportation engineers can do the work of 10–20 engineers.

The City of Raleigh capitalized on existing infrastructure and relationships to develop this revolutionary approach to city services, critical for a local government eager to conserve resources. “This has not required a single modification to our on-the-streets assets,” says Alberque.

“We are so lucky to be partnering with Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Esri. None of this would be even close to possible without them.”

James Alberque, GIS and Emerging Technology Manager, City of Raleigh

Serving residents with technology and trusted relationships

As Raleigh thrives, city employees—from executive leadership down—are committed to using technology to improve quality of life. “It’s been a journey, but the City’s Chief Information Officer Mark Wittenburg is providing real outcomes and impact to not only the government employees but also the residents,” says Alex Pazos, Business Development Lead, Global Public Sector, at NVIDIA.

For the City of Raleigh, trusted collaboration is at the center of its success. “We are so lucky to be partnering with Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Esri,” says Alberque. “None of this would be even close to possible without them.”

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